Chapter One
Rosie Emery nibbled her lip, and frowned across at the man who was in charge of her life. Pops stared across his desk at her, his gaze impenetrable as he looked her up and down. She hadn’t been offered a seat, so she stood, grabbing hold of her purse. Coming to the Old Boyz had been a last resort. That was their club name, Old Boyz, and the tales about them weren’t any laughing matter. A lot of the women she’d heard telling tales, rarely had a bad thing to say.
“You take one, you take them all.”
Five men—Pops, Billy, Marshall, Gavin, and Ethan, all of them different, and yet loyal to each other. They owned the bar outside of town. It was the bar everyone went to if you wanted to have a good time. She’d never been to the Old Boyz bar, apart from right now where she was standing in the office at the back of the main bar.
“Why don’t you have a seat?” he asked.
Her heart slammed against her chest, and she let out a breath. The other four men stood around the room, all of them looking bored.
Lowering herself into a chair, she stared at Pops, whom she believed to be the oldest of the group, and the one in charge. The men were not related, not by a long shot. They were simply the best of friends.
“You don’t need to be scared, Rosie.”
“It’s embarrassing though.” She lowered her head and stared at her lap.
“You need money?”
“Yes.” It was so humiliating. Her little bookshop had hit hard times, and she’d fallen behind on a couple of her payments. To make matters worse, Peter James had taken over her loan, and his interest rates were high. He wanted her to sell the business to her, and had even tried to create a bad name for her in town so people stopped visiting her shop. With the repayments being twice as much, and the pressure from him to sell, she was at a dead end. She handed over the file of paperwork with regards to the loan, and Peter’s demands. The file shook, showing her fear to the roomful of men. “I will pay you back.”
“How did your shop fall on hard times?” Pops asked.
“It’s been a bad couple of years for all businesses. No one wants to read actual books.” She’d had many more plans for her shop, which was why she had the loan. Rosie was going to turn it into a café for her customers. Of course, a scam meant all that loan money had disappeared. She’d thought she was investing in a good decorating firm. Once they had her details, the money emptied out of her account, and she got behind trying to recover.
Pops opened the file and frowned. “You’re selling up?”
“This is why I wanted your help. I know you are fair, and that you don’t screw anyone over, providing they don’t screw you. I’m already in the market for another job, and there have been multiple offers on the shop. I really had hoped that I didn’t have to sell it, but I don’t have a choice. It’s just the loan. I can pay you back, regularly, in installments, and you can do whatever interest you want.”
“The bank allowed Peter James to take over your loan?”
Each of the men let out a grunt, clearly not happy.
“You know Peter?”
“He’s a slime-ball.”
“I know. It’s why I’m hoping you can help me. You’re my last hope.”
Pops stared at her. “This is a lot of money. Why can’t you get it back from this company?”
“They disappeared. I lost everything, along with a lot of other people.” Again, she shrugged. “I’ve tried to get it back.”
“You don’t want to deal with Peter,” Marshall said. “He’s a bad guy. As bad as they come.”
“I’m hoping not. He’s offered something that I’m not willing to give.” She shuddered. Peter was a handsome man, but there was a cruelty in his eyes that couldn’t be disguised.
“Step out for a second. I want to talk to my boys.”
She nodded. “Yes. Certainly.”
Her life was in their hands.
****
Pops couldn’t look away from Rosie’s swinging ass, and he saw his friends had the same problem. The look of lust on their faces was easy to detect. Rosie always had that effect on them. Her body was the thing of dreams, all curves and softness. Her tits were nice and large, along with her hips.
“What do you boys think?” he asked.